7g/90mL – boiling water – 8 infusions

Since I can't drink tea after 5pm if I want to sleep that night, I was happy to see white2tea release four kinds of decaf tea last year in small packages. I tried all of them but didn't like the white tea and sheng at all unfortunately. The black tea and shou were fine, though I found decaf taste (metallic and somewhat empty in the middle) quite noticeable. The shou was most enjoyable even if it wasn't really creamy, which I usually like about shou.

This year, white2tea released several decaf tea cakes and even two types of decaf shou. Based on u/thezezethex's descriptions in another thread, I figured that the Night Joe would probably suit my taste preferences better than the other shou called Siesta, so I ordered a cake. It arrived last week and though I know that the taste is usually better if you let the tea cake rest after shipping, today I had a good opportunity for an evening gongfu session, so I gave it a try. Here are my thoughts:

There are several positive surprises about this tea. First of all, I don't notice the decaf taste at all. The overall taste is still a bit lighter than most shous I have tried, but it is surprisingly good and even a bit sweet. Earthiness is rather subtle, earlier infusions reminded me of dark chocolate without the bitterness, later infusions reminded me of wood with still some chocolate-y aroma in the background. All in all the taste is simple but pleasant.

Also, the tea was surprisingly creamy. Not in the slurry-like way where you can feel the tiny suspended particles in your mouth, but in a more homogenous and smooth way. To be fair, the tea-to-water ratio was higher than what I normally use for shou (6g/90mL), so a dense-ish liquid was expected. Infusions 2 to 4 were super dark and essentially black.

In total I got 8 infusions out of it. The first one for about 30 seconds, since the tea cake is very compressed, second to fourth for about 10 seconds, after that increasing in large increments. The last one took about 3 minutes and was still very light in color and taste. This is pretty much what I would have expected from any other shou of that price (58 USD for 200g).

Finally, the caffeine, or rather its absence: It is now 11pm and if I would have had 7g of any non-decaf shou over the last two hours, I would be absolutely awake and energized. Instead I am tired and pretty sure that I will be asleep within an hour.

The Verdict: white2tea did an excellent job with the decaffeination process, both taste-wise and in terms of residual caffeine (which I don't notice). Compared to all non-decaf shou I have tried in my life, the taste and texture of this one are nice but not exceptional. But: In light of last year's decaf shou and other decaf teas, I can say that this is by far the best decaffeinated tea I have tried so far. I am confident that I'll have many pleasant evening gongfu sessions with it in the upcoming months.

5.5g/80mL, duanni clay pot, just off boil

Wash (10s) - aroma of light wood and honey

Steep 1 (flash) - light steep, woody, light smoke, honey, maraschino cherries, slickness in mouth, cinnamon, thick mouthfeel

Steep 2 (flash) - woody notes with faint cherrywood smoke, light sweetness, tingle starting to develop on tongue, soup has a nice thickness to it, cooling sensation in mouth, light acidity bringing out cherry fruitiness into finish, lightly toasted sweet yeast rolls

Steep 3 (5s) - sweet rolls up front, nice coating on mouth still, salivation and tingle radiate from corner of jaw, some leafy notes without moving to a papery character, sweetness not super deep into the finish

Steep 4 (10s) - fruit hardwood more upfront this time around without being super smoky, cherry syrup in finish with a rather light sweetness

Steep 5 (20s) - sweet cherrywood with very light smoke, very relaxed body feel but not heavy, hints of sweet orange, light peppery note

Steep 6 (30s) - still pretty full in the mouth, lightly sweet, slick

Steep 7+ (45s+) - still holding strong for many more steeps, smoke mostly gone, but wood and cherry remains

Overall Impression - This gives a lot of cherry and cherrywood with just a hint of smoke. Not a lot of sweetness, but a really nice balance. Not smoky enough where it's super BBQ-like, but maybe something lightly smoked and then coated in a cherry-based glaze. This is a score for a free sample. I will definitely go back for more of this the next time I place a PuerhNW order

I bought today this puer for 90 eu. 375 grams. 2019 7742. Does not have the flavor of liquor browny of all the other 4 5 puer I tried so far
. Is this a scam? I checked online and looked serious but I am a newbie. This is the color from 1 to 5th step. Does not taste good really delicate

Edit thanks everyone really friendly community after the initial shock looks ok kinda sencha floreal with more step time

Edit 2 I like this idea that can leave it into the closet the tea. The other colors kinda of lose potential so make a kind of urge to consume

Dear people of the tea,

first post, first cake.

Well, I bought my first cake for around 60 EUR from Buchian Tea House in Vienna, Austria. The shop is unfortunately closing and I went with my gut and am quite excited about my purchase.

I have read as much as I could find on this tea online and understand what the numbers mean and that is basically it.

Fairly new to the tea game (about a year) and would love to learn more about this tea, since I really could not find a lot of information on it.

I have not tried it yet and will report back once I did.

So, what are your opinions and your knowledge about this disk smelling absolutely lovely on my bedside table?

Any recommendations on brewing gong du and storage are welcome too.

Cheers.

Got more into CHINATEA offerings as I was impressed by their 7571, these are kind of interesting as they seem to be less fermented so they retain slightly of the bitterness of raw teas. Definitely worth testing out, i think this is quite different from other ripes iw had.

The 7571 is more mellow, and uses higher grade leaf's with the 7 grade while this has 8 grade leafs (the 3rd number).

This one was dated 2020.

Overall cheaper than DaYi stuff and still high quality teas.

And this is real Chinese communist tea, fully state owned. :) I think this is made more for Chinese markets. And I think most people are not aware that they are an actual manufacturer that controls the whole chain of production.

China Tea - COFCO Corporation

Got this from this Ebay seller, for $17.24 (15€) and this includes shipping, VAT & new fuck EU import fee. And that new fee alone is over 4$. Shipping was quite fast to EU, and there were no extra import fees.. it was all handled correctly. So this might help EU people who are still wondering how this stuff works now.

ZHONGCHA COFCO Classic Puer 7581 Ripe Puerh Brick Shu Cooked Pu'er Brick 250g | eBay

This is, sadly, the first PuErh I have tried and truly hated or even disliked. From 35 dollar cakes off Amazon to bespoke Mei Leaf gushu, this is my only bad experience.

I recently bought some samples of sheng from YS, and thought I'd share thoughts as a very new pu'er drinker.

Brewed in a ~100ml gaiwan, although not all steeps were filled the same amount. 5g of tea. I brewed from a thermos which started at boiling, but inevitably the temp would have dropped a bit throughout.

Wash steep: poured off liquid from the gaiwan as soon as I'd finished pouring in from the kettle.

First steep: 5 seconds. The liquid was a bright yellow, without much scent. The tea didn't taste that strongly, but I got some caramel sweetness towards the back of my mouth. No bitterness or astirngency.

Second steep: 8 seconds. Darker yellow liquid. The leaves in the gaiwan have a strong, distinctive smell which I recognise but can't put my finger on. The tea tastes a little stronger, still with the sweetness, still without bitterness.

Third steep: 10 seconds. Same colour liquid. There is some bitterness now, and the tea is more concentrated and now feels somewhat viscous. I feel it coating my mouth quite pleasantly. The sweetness now is masked by the bitterness, so less prominent. I can feel the caffeine quite strongly already.

Fourth steep: 12 seconds. The leaf scent is still there, but dying away a bit. The bitterness has died back a bit, and the sweetness is still there. Still the mouth coating.

Fifth steep: 20 seconds. The tea seems lighter now than in steeps 2 and 3. Bitterness down again, but still sweet. I think the water cooling may be a factor. At this point I definitely feel a little over caffeinated.

From here on I broke up the session a bit, and probably was concentrating a little less and had stopped taking notes. The sweetness really lingered, I could feel it hanging around my mouth for a good while after I stopped drinking the tea. I came away feeling quite a high mood, but I have a feeling this may have been more to do with sitting and just drinking the tea without any distractions than the tea itself!

I have a few more so will try to report those too if anyone is interested in this one.

Very light compared to smaller leaves of aged raw I've tasted so far - which are not much numerous.

Storage seems to have been rather dry but not too much. It developed camphor aromas - which I'm pretty much discovering little by little.

The only camphor flavor I've tasted so far is from a Sun Moon Lake Taïwan red tea I have from my local tea shop. With like a clear red tiger balm taste.

This one is less prominent about camphor IMO but the leaves are so large that it's not surprising that the flavors have to infuse longer than a red tea.

When pushed, the steep is not bitter but rather acidic actually. Very easy to drink.

The smell is fantastic. Reminds me when I was a child and that I was playing in the dirt full of clay in the South of France. So there' many mineral scents in the nose.

I have to drink it again to perceive some other stuff.

Not nutty af as some dried stored aged ones and not petrichorous af as full humidity storage ones.

So it seems well balanced about the storage and the leaves are very beautiful. They have difficulty to unfold and I think this is perfectly normal for an aged material.

Until now this is my fav aged raw.

So I placed an order on August 26 and it still says "We're preparing these items for shipping." I know the actual travel time will be a while from what I read but does the actual packing time take a while too? (First time ordering from them)

Temu has tea. What is your expirence with them? I'm guessing everything too good to be true, wasn't true.

I saw a 1970s no label raw puer that I'm tempted to get..

Hi everyone, I'm setting up two airtight containers with 69% Boveda packs and need advice on sizing. My first setup is a 10L box holding 3 large (357g) and 5 small sheng cakes. My second setup is a 5L box containing 4 large shou cakes. How many grams of Boveda would you recommend putting in each container? Thanks in advance for your help!

Ive been having a ton of samples from different terroirs recently and via a tea exchange got to taste loads of more expensive sheng.

One of them stood out and it was a tianmenshan 20 from ymt, which tasted much more rustic than all the others and had definite smokey, fruity and deep notes which I absolutely loved. There basically not many green notes left.

Tianmenshan is yiwu as far as I found out, is this roasted character typical of the area or is it a processing style? I had other yiwu gushu which was wildly diffrent (but also fantastic).

Wondering where can I find other sources of sheng with similar profile? It doesnt have to be exactly the same profile of course, but I enjoyed it so much I want to try something similar.

What's a good shop with shipping in or to the US for buying DaYi, XiaGuan, etc ripe tea? KTM seems like it has good prices, but I'm wondering if there's anywhere else I'm overlooking.

Been experimenting with drinking these as tea and a few other strains mixed into a tincture which is evaporated down to a resinous product. Both come out quite nice.

Hi All!

Do you have any recommendations for gong fu gear in the Bay area?

I'm looking for a glass gong dao bei, similar to what I saw in Taiwan shops. I want to see it in person and not but online.

So,recently i got my first set of gongfu cha,which is small but get the job done,i been thinking of buying this Pu Erh i heard a lot,and my question is:

How do you explain the flavor to somoane who never drink it and is used to coffee?

(Also yeah im thinking of buying pu erh and other teas too)

Essence of Tea 2026 Chawangshu Single Tree "Triangle" raw puer

8g/120mL, just off boil

Wash (10s) - punchy latex/floral aroma, gaiwan lid has fruity funk

Steep 1 (flash) - light, clean, quick sweetness some of that latex and floral note shows up early as a bit of clean funk that isn't clingy at this point, fruity citrus note already popping up in finish

Steep 2 (flash) - cooked rice, funky latex note but not bringing any real bitterness with it, latex fades to florals on the tongue, sweetness mixing with florals as it slowly fades in, vanilla and orchids, fresh plums in mid palate, floral bite starts to develop a bit as sips build on each other, late sweetness builds in concert

Steep 3 (5s) - sweetness starting to last into the following sip and floral bite lays on top of it, sweetness coming from back of mouth and focused on soft palate, hints of bitter orange, punchy but not aggressive, full flavor and satisfying mouthfeel, finish long and sweet with lingering floral notes and hints of fruit

Steep 4 (10s, reboil) - a bit more bitterness up front as the late sweetness had time to fade while I was reheating my kettle, still feels clean initially despite the bitterness, bitterness rising but still mostly front and sides of tongue without feeling heavy, sweetness comes back late

Steep 5 (15s) - reserved for later comparison

Steep 6 (20s) - return of late sweetness tempers the bitterness, floral and fruity-floral top notes persist, some mossiness now layering underneath

Steep 7+ (30s+) - holding pretty steady, not soft, has some heft while remaining clean

Overall Impression - Flavor wise this has some heft to it. It definitely isn't “soft” the way my experience with young Yiwu tends to be. That said, it is certainly not aggressive in any way. There is a very nice huigan sweetness that really balances this tea well once it sets up. Floral flavor is big here. Floral and fruit top notes are here, but play a smaller role compared to what is happening on the tongue and throat.

Essence of Tea 2026 Chawangshu Single Tree "Circle" raw puer

8g/120mL, just off boil

Wash (10s) - light vanilla-sugary note, gaiwan l8f had a funky fruit note with some wood

Steep 1 (flash) - light steep, popcorn, hints of vanilla sugar, very faint sweetness

Steep 2 (flash) - initial wood, fruity top notes, tropical papaya in open mouth, still a little light as this was a firmer chunk of cake that is still opening, sweetness is light, nectarine skins and aromatics of ripe plums at the front of the sip, sweetness picks up late, mostly center of tongue

Steep 3 (5s) - a bit more bite early but not particularly bitter, stonefruit/berry-floral quality to the bite, fruit skins more than latex, sweetness slightly darker than straight-up candy, late citrus and tart nectarine notes with an almost turbinado sweetness, sweetness endures but never crosses above a moderate threshold

Steep 4 (10s) - fruit skin and floral bite up front moves to a hint of leather, sweetness light and slow to build, yet ouch of a drying sensation, bite turning more floral with some lavender aromatics opening up in the mouth

Steep 5 (15s) - reserved for later comparison

Steep 6 (20s) - a bit punchier than before, the gap between this and the triangle is closing a bit, but this definitely leans softer and more aromatic still compared between the two, less sweetness in the finish but a nice aromatic and fruit component that pairs with the finish as it evolves

Steep 7+ (30s+) - holding steady, less depth to finish than the triangle

Overall Impression - This is another nice tea. It is generally softer and less robust than the triangle, but noticeably more aromatic. A bit fruitier, and while a punch does develop it doesn't hit the intensity of the triangle. Sweetness is enough to balance the softer bite, but overall less intense. There is a nice fruity and aromatic component to the finish that makes it more than just sweetness.

Circle definitely is my favorite of the two, but neither truly brings a full picture on its own. It's surprising how easily I can tease out the difference between these two despite being from the same garden. It also is a very good way to visualize the benefits of blending, as each of these have different strengths and weaknesses that would easily help balance the other.

I saved the fifth steep from both teas and iced them for my son to try later. He preferred the Triangle. That extra huigan sweetness definitely made the iced version a lot easier to go down and brought out more fruit than when it was hot. Circle just didn't have enough sweetness and made it a little rougher when iced.

I’m building up a cart on White2Tea right now and wanting to throw a few more cakes in there.

Any favorite shous from them? Would love to try some new ones

as the title states, i have not got something to contain/strain the loose pu'er with (i got some recently), will it be safe? i hear stuff about not drinking the 1st steep

It was my 30th birthday, and since reaching such a milestone (lol), I ought to treat myself with some good quality pu erh and a teapot for sheng. Order just arrived an hour ago, only got to try the Manzhuan Wild Raw Pu erh and it’s incredible! Tastes like honey and fresh flowers then develops a pleasant astringency and a more complex fruity aroma, plus an intense Cha Qi. And I’m only at 4th steep.

What I got is:
2024 Manzhuan Walong Village Wild Raw Pu Erh Tea

2022 Chaze Bing Dao Raw Pu Erh Tea Cake (sample)

2023 Chaze 'Fragrance of Bingdao' Raw Pu Erh Tea Cake (sample)

2022 Chaze Yaocha Guangbie Old Village Raw Pu Erh Tea (Cake)

2021 Chaze Bai Fu 'Hundred Blessings' Ripe Bingdao Pu Erh (Cake)

2019 Lao Ban Zhang Ripe Pu Erh Tea Balls (10 pcs)

Duanni Clay Yixing Teapot, by Li Xiao Lu 140ml 

Blue 3-Legged Money Frog/Toad Tea Pet

Name of store: Teasenz.eu